Rush
A Farewell to Kings

THE REVIEW

After the success of "2112," the Rush gift us with another masterpiece that is perhaps even more convincing than the previous one. If "2112" highlighted a certain experimental attitude of the group, this album further accentuates this tendency and presents itself as much more progressive. This is due to a more complex structure of the songs, a more massive use of keyboards (rather neglected in the previous album), and a lower rate of influences from classic hard rock.

And if the morning shows the day, then the innovations can be noticed already in the first eponymous track: it begins with a classical guitar arpeggio accompanied by sweet melodies played with keyboards, then progresses in a direction towards more classic rock and concludes with another arpeggio. The masterpiece of the album par excellence is, however, "Xanadu" with its hefty 11-minute duration: it starts with strange sound effects, bird chirping, percussion, guitar effects, and bell sounds, then an alternation of lively guitars accompanied by the magic of synths and more melodic parts with powerful synth riffs and delicate guitar arpeggios. "Closer To The Heart" is also to be appreciated, with the guitars increasingly in a psychedelic key. More direct and less laborious is "Cinderella Man", while "Madrigal" with its mere 2 and a half minutes offers another moment of pure psychedelia, thanks to sweet guitars and excellent melodies with the keyboards. To close, we hear a roaring "Cygnus X-1": the first minutes of pure experimentalism characterized by electronic-space sounds, then a nice bass riff introduces us to the more material part with frantic and energetic guitars not left alone by the synths.

Excuse me, but... with all due respect to its predecessor, the true masterpiece of Rush is this one; without a doubt the most inspired album of the Canadian band. An example.